Conservation and celebration will converge at the fourth annual North Richmond Shoreline Festival, an event that has grown from a small gathering of like-minded activists into a community event.

The festival will be from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Point Pinole Regional Shoreline, 5551 Giant Highway in Richmond. Point Pinole is one of four regional parks in Richmond and possibly one of the most overlooked.

“We really wanted the community to come out, and we wanted them to know Point Pinole was there,” said Doria Robinson, one of the organizers of this year’s festival. “It’s one of the most beautiful shorelines on the Bay, and it’s right in our backyard.”

The festival is sponsored by of the North Richmond Shoreline Open Space Alliance and will include live music and dance on main and children’s stages, a children’s activity area, an area where bicyclists can decorate their ride and a free barbecue.

The park’s natural aspects will be a focus of the day. Along with an “eco area” there will be hiking and birding, a scavenger hunt and a marsh walk.

“This year’s going to be amazing,” Robinson said. “It’s really a whole different ballgame this year.”

A 24-member committee — about equal to attendance at the first shoreline festival — has been planning the event since January. The first celebration was a gathering of shoreline, open space and environmental justice advocates, while organizing this year has been expanded to include a broad part of the community.

Last year’s celebration brought about 200 people to Point Pinole, and this year organizers are hoping for 500 or more.

The goal is to let the public know a major and underused recreational asset is available nearby.

“We realized if we don’t enjoy what we have, we can lose it,” Robinson said.

This year’s celebration is dedicated to the late Ethel Dotson, a longtime Richmond activist and advocate on behalf of those living near the industrial sites traditionally found on the Richmond shoreline. Dotson, who was 65 when she died in 2007, attended that first small festival, but did not live to see how it has grown, Robinson said.

A bench in Dotson’s memory will be dedicated at Point Pinole on Saturday, and speakers will offer highlights on her years of activism. Point Pinole, where dynamite was once manufactured, is an example of a shoreline site returned to a more natural state and made available to the public.

WEST COUNTY NOTES: Members of the Eagles Club in San Pablo will hold a sock hop and fried-chicken dinner Saturday to benefit the San Pablo Emergency Food Pantry. The evening starts with no-host cocktails at 5 p.m. and “Jon’s famous fried chicken dinner” at 6 p.m., followed by dancing to oldies spun by Mike and Sandy de Alba.

There will be a raffle, best outfit and hula hoop contests and more, along with $3 margaritas. Dinner only is $10, dinner and dance is $15 at the Eagles Aerie, 2100 Rivers St. in San Pablo.